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by sensanaty·2y ago·view on hn ↗
I will never in my life comprehend how lobbying isn't just bribery with extra steps. The only distinction between bribing a cop to get out of a speeding ticket and a megacorp lobbying random politicians is that the megacorp has much deeper pockets, absolutely ridiculous
1 comments
1. It's like how networking isn't cronyism

2. Politicians need to know how the businesses they're regulating work, and theoretically they gain a lot from being able to talk it over with the businesses themselves (the existing ones, mind you - not the future ones which might be stifled, and currently have $0)

3. Lobbying is another word for talking with your local politician, what megacorps do (and what basically everyone means when they say "lobbying", really) is paid lobbying, i.e. run the "lobbying" errand on your behalf. Banning the former type of lobbying is impossible, and banning the latter is hard to do when it's a legitimate service for people who have more money than time (and also might violate free speech laws, and also is hard to actually stop)

4. Fuck paid lobbying, it does more harm than good